now that i have mepis installed, i've been having some fun synaptuicing some programs. i installed and configured evolution fine.

i then uninstalled php4 and installed php 5 and postgresql 8.

i then installed about 8 games.

in any case, during the install, it said something about upgrading kde gave me an option to shut it down then or wait. i waited.

when i restarted my box (couldn't find the programs i had downloaded and i thought a reboot might make them appear), kde didn't load.

instead, i was left in text mode with the system asking for my login. i logged in.

i didnd't know what to do, so i typed in startx. i was left with a commandline area in the upper left. i still don't know what to do - and typing "kde" did nothing for me (as i'm sure it shouldn't -lol-).

can anyone give me the low down on what may have gone wrong and an idea how i can fix it?

tia...

I can't really help, and you're not going to like this story, but here goes ...

A few months back I decided to install a Gnome program on my good lady's Mepis machine. Small utility, I figured it'd need some gtk libraries, and we'd be a goer.

Started updating, and in the course of it, started deleting KDE - I woke up way too late. Tried all the usual update, un-install, re-install... to get everything back in place.
Eventually took the hint and downloaded the latest CD and rebuilt the thing from scratch. /home was on a separate partition, so was pretty painless. Turns out it fixed an issue I was having with Cups talking to a printer on my (hardware) wireless router.

Like I said, probably not what you wanted to hear ...

reinstalling probably isn't a big deal at this point, however, i'd like to be able to avoid this going forward.

did i install a gnome program that botched kde? how can i know this before i install a program so i can avoid it?

tia...

Before doing a whole reinstall, try this:

Put your MEPIS CD in your drive and reboot. Then go into the MEPIS OS Center (the icon with the hammer and wrench). Under the installation utilities should be something like "Restore X Configuration" or restore video configuration or something like that. Do it. Reboot and it should work again.

The same thig happened to me a while back.

thanks for the advice - i'll try it next time. i did a reinstall to my root partition and things are fine now.

the problem was that kdeaddons wouldn't install - and neither would kde-amusements since it depends on kdeaddons.

i don't know which of my 15 packages created this problem.

no i only install a few programs at a time (probably should be one at a time).